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J*.* 



SYMPATHY, 



ITS FOUNDATION AND LEGITIMATr EXERCISE 



CONSIDERED, 



IN SPECIAL RELATION TO AFRICA: 



DELIVERED ON THE 



FOURTH OF JULY 1828, 



SIXTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 



BY JOHN II. KENNEDY 



PHILADELPHIA 

PRINTED BT W, P, GEDIJES, NO. 59 EOCUST STREET. 



In conformity with the request of the Pennsylvania Colonization 
Society, the collection in aid of the American Colonization Society, 
was taken on the Sabbath preceding the Fourth of July: that taken 
on the 4th was appropriated to Prince Abduhl Rahahman. The 
Reader is requested to get what good he can from the sermon, and 
is at liberty to ascribe its publication to such motives as charity dic- 
tates. 



< SYMPATHY. 

\, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ?— Lam. i. 12.' 

" The book of Lamentations was written during the Babylonish Cap- 
tivity. The Holy City was at that time desolate, the land of Judea 
'was a waste. In the text, Zion is personified; She speaks, she be- 
wails, she appeals to the sympathy of the beholder. « Is it nothing 
to you all ye that pass by." 

This language is frequently put in the lips of the "man of sorrows." 
The accommodation is a proper one; For never were claims md sympa- 
thy equally strong, and never were sufferings to be compared with 
those which He endured for our sake. But the feelings expressed are 
common to sufferers. The language is natural, " Is it nothing to 
you all ye that pass by?" The words are to be understood not as an 
interrogation but as an affirmation, "You who behold them cannot 
certainly be indifferent to the sufferings I endure!" It is but the 
application to our own sorrows of the general principle, There is an 
obligation on all persons to sympathise with those who suffer, and to 
give suitable expressions their sympathy. This obligation results 

1. From the principle of Benevolence. We ought to feel kindly 
and to act kindly towards others, to sympathise with the sufferer and 
to lighten if may be his burden; and we neither have nor need a 
better reason for it, than that it is right. To prove it we; need not and 
cannot. It is an axiom in morals; a principle to be felt and acted 
on not argued about. The obligation exists antecedently to and in- 
dependently of any connexion or community of interest we may have 
with the sufferer. 

2. This obligation results, From the community of interest subsist- 
ing between all the members of the human family. There is not only 
the material body of the Naturalist, and the Body Politic of the States- 
man, but there is an ampler Body which includes every member of the 
human family. When a member of any body suffers the other mem- 
bers suffer with it. In some instances adjoining members are appa- 
rently gainers by the sufferings and contusions of other members: But 
the gain is only apparent, the member enlarged is only swollen, the 
loss is real, the strength is lessened. Between the members of the hu- 
man family the connection is not so intimate as between those of the 
human body; still it is real. Every man is a loser in the losses of 
every other man. In this case, as in the other, there is not unfre- 
quently an apparent gain. The man who enslaves another, who makes 
the sweat and blood of another minister to his personal aggrandise- 
ment, accounts himself a gainer. But the gain is apparent, the loss 



P .4 

is real. For if we admit, that he is a gainer in a pecuniary point of 
view (and even this is not true except in peculiarly favorable circum- 
stances,) the loss sustained elsewhere may more than counterbalance his 
gain. Peace spreads her pinions for flight. No longer can he eat his 
bread in quietness. Idleness grows on him, and pride, ignorance, re- 
sentfulness, profligacy, and cruelty are in the train. It is difficult to 
say, whether the master or the slave be the greater loser by this unna- 
tural state of things. If our ample survey extend to the illimitable 
future we will be constrained to exclaim with our gentle Poet — 

" Dear to me as Freedom is, 
And in my heart's just estimation prized, 
Above all price, I'd rather be myself the slave 
And wear the chains, than fasten them on him." 

The general principle, That all are obligated to sympathise with 
those who suffer, admits this modification, Special cases create special 
obligations. They who are exempt from the ills deplored and whose 
location enables them to extend a helping hand without difficulty, are 
under stronger than ordinary obligations. The moral world like the 
natural will be most thoroughly cultivated, when the field under each 
one's vision is the object of special though not exclusive attention. 
To this modification of t'-e general principle there is evident allusion 
in the text. The sufferer addresses her plaint to those who " pass 
by" to those who are in the vicinity, the witnesses of her sufferings. 

Let us now apply the general principle to a particular case, that of 
The People of Colour. Of this class of persons there are nearly three 
millions within the limits of these United States. About three hun- 
dred thousand of them have a partial and nominal Freedom: Partial, 
in as much as the most of them enjoy but a portion of the rights of 
Freemen; and nominal, because prejudices and circumstances present 
insuperable obstacles even where no legal disabilities exist. The re- 
mainder of this population exceeding two and a half millions in num- 
ber is held in slavery more or less abject in proportion to their num- 
bers within any given limits. Is the African in our land a siijff'crer? 
The fact is questioned. Our " Declaration of Independence" to the 
contrary notwithstanding, some aver, that slaves are more happy 
than Freemen! would that the consolations they so highly prise were 
allotted them! The implement suited to convince them is that which 
the wise man alludes Prov. £6, 3. 

The language in an after part of our text seems peculiarly appropriate 
in the lips of the African; •« Behold anil see, if there be any sorrow 
like unto my sorrow." It may be questioned, whether for an equal 
length of time any people have experienced as severe sufferings. The 



*9 



crime however, of introducing slavery lies elsewhere than at cur door. 
Our Legislatures sojhnnly protested against it. The British Linn 
from whose paw God in mercy has rescued us, threw the helpless and 
mangled African on our shores; and we merit no further blame than as 
we may evince a desire to perpetuate the evil. 

In regard to a. well regulated system of slavery which some contend 
for, we are about as sanguine as in regard to a well regulated Theatre. 
It is a " rara avis," a brood extinct, rather that has never existed ex- 
cept in fancy— a thing that "might be," or that "ought to be!" The 
one to be popular must adapt itself to taste, in other words, must 
minister to vice; slavery to be lucrative must be " well regulated," i.e. 
for degrading its victims. The spark of intellect in the slave must be 
smothered, all sense of Justice and of Personal rights extinguished; if 
he be a man he is not fit for a slave! But let " slavery disguise itself 
as it will," let there be every alleviation possible in the nature of the 
case; let his lot be cast with a master heedful of his temporal and spiri- 
tual welfare, still these are but alleviations. He is yet a slave, depriv- 
ed of Heaven's noblest earthly blessing. Nor can there be any gua- 
rantee of the continuance of his present comforts. His "dawn" may 
be speedily " overcast;" his new master may " neither fear God nor 
regard man." 

" Is it nothing to us" that more than two millions among us are in a 
state of slavery? Yes my Christian hearers, they have claims on us. 

As men, They are members of the same family, sprung from the 
" one Blood." •• It matters not what complexiou an Indian or an Afri- 
can sun may have impressed upon them," they are men, rational and 
immortal beings, possessed of feelings and rights and hopes and souls... 
Shall we remain unmoved while they are reckoned up as the beasts of 
the field, and the principal solicitude in regard to them is, How 
they shall best minister to avarice or serve as a prop to idleness? Must 
we be unconcerned while they are consigned to a hopeless servitude, 
entailed on children's children, until the Trump of God shall utter its 
horrors? They are our Brethren who must " soon appear with us before 
the judgment seat of Christ," and if the evils they labor under admit 
of a remedy, we may no longer be unconcerned. 

As Freemen we are bound to sympathise with them. We have 
waded through blood to establish the principle, That " all men are 
by nature free and equal." For fifty years we have been "sitting un- 
der our own vine and under our own fig-tree," and are not disposed to 
admit the principle, that slavery is preferable to liberty. If told to 
** mind our oivn business, our answer is, That to dislike and to oppose 
slavery is emphatically the business of Freemen. 

As Americans we ate specially interested inthe circumstances and 



^ 6 

sorrows of the slave. We are the persons in the present instance who 
"pass by," the witnesses, and who have it in our power to disburden 
ourselves while benefitting them. Our Country suffers, and as lovers 
of our country we cannot be indifferent to what affects her standing 
and interests. She suffers in point of Character. It is discreditable 
to us to perpetuate an evil which we were the first to denounce. Our 
country suffers in point of strength. A slave population is not merely a 
subtraction from our resources, but is inevitably hostile to our inte- 
rests, and willing on any emergency to attach themselves to our 
enemies. Force and craft may succeed for a time in keeping the slave 
in subjection. He may be shorn of his locks and deprived of his eyes; 
He may be kept back from power, and kept away from instruction; 
But in time he will gather strength, and force will compensate for want 
of knowledge. Like Samson he will find, though it be even by feel- 
ing, the pillars of Despotism, and will pull down the Temple though 
himself should perish in its ruins. The increase of a slave popula- 
tion must greatly exceed that of the Free. In our Southern States the 
increase is at least as two to one. The principal reason of the differ- 
ence is this — The respectability and wealth of the master depends in 
a great measure on the number of his slaves; consequently he has 
every reason to defer and the slave every inducement to hasten 
marriage. The consequence will be, that in process of time the 
slaves must gain the ascendency. The scenes of St. Domingo will be 
acted over in our land; the entire Southern section of our country 
will be an Aceldama. Our country suffers in point of morals. 
Industry, economy, temperance, forbearance, in a word the entire ele- 
ments of moral and republican being and of true national glory, never 
have flourished, nor can, to any great extent where slavery prevails. 
It is a worm at the root of our national Tree which must materially 
retard if not wholly destroy its vigor. " The whole commerce be- 
tween the master and the slave is a perpetual exercise of the most 
boisterous passions the most unremitting despotism on the one part, 
and degrading submissions on the other* * * * * *. The parent storms, 
the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same 
airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to the worst of pas- 
sions, and thus nursed, educated and daily exercised in tyranny cannot 
but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a 
prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such 
circumstances. And with what execration should the Statesman be 
loaded, who permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the 
rights of the other, transforms those into despots and these into ene- 
mies, destroys the morals of the one part and the amor patriae of the 
other. For if a slave can have a country in this world, it must be 



any other in preference to that in which he is born to live and labor for 
another; in which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contri- 
bute as far as depends on his individual endeavors to the evanishment 
of the human race, or entail his own miserable condition on the endless 
generations proceeding from him." Jefferson's notes on Virginia, Query 
18th. The chapter is brief and highly eloquent. 

2. Havin^ investigated to some extent the evil deplored, we now 
proceed to the Remedy to be applied. Whatever is attempted towards 
the removal of this evil must operate gradually. The Body Politic like 
the animal economy adapts itself to habits however ruinous in their ulti- 
mate tendency; and an entire instantaneous abandonment of such ha- 
bits subjects it to serious inconvenience. Where moral principle is 
not sacrificed, the wiser course is progressive amelioration and pros- 
pective abandonment. Where the marsh has been of long standing, 
its contents must be drained not disgorged, and the soil must be culti- 
vated as the waters recede; The evils of slavery as we have seen are 
great; But both the slave population and the Free have been too 
long accustomed to it, to profit by immediate universal emancipation. — 
What is attempted must also operate harmoniously. We must have 
the consent if possible, and must pay due regard to the interests of the 
master himself. The object to be aimed at, is not to establish the rights 
of the slave in the abstract, but to secure to him the exercise of those 
rights; and in our government this cannot be effected but with the con- 
sentjand through the agency of the master. How little has been effect- 
ed by the other modes hitherto attempted. We mean not intention- 
ally to undervalue the services of the Abolition Society in the cause of 
emancipation. Their motives are pure and their efforts untiring; But 
we profess ourselves sceptical as to the benefits to emancipation 
resulting from their labours. One has perhaps been benefitted, but at 
the expence we fear of twenty. The mind of the master at the South 
has been embittered, the cords have been tightened, the chains rivet- 
ted. We are not indeed to expect, that so great a work will be accom- 
plished without difficulty and opposition: But the opposition in the 
South to the abolition scheme is nearly universal, and exists on the 
part of those who see and regret and desire to remedy the evils of 
slavery. Why have the Abolitionists been so unsuccessful? Experience 
is the best Teacher; and in order to make rapid improvement, we 
must permit her to comment freely though kindly on past mistakes. 
The Abolitionists, in our judgment, have not impartially surveyed the 
entire field to be operated on. Their operations have not been adapted 
to existing circumstances. We need wisdom as well as valor. Our 
arrows must not strike upon the thick plate of the harness, but between 
the joints. What we aim at, is to do execution, and not to spear our- 



selves by rushing direct upon the set pikes of our opponents. To be 
plain, it is better surely to obtain the gradual emancipation of the slaves, 
than to have much wrath and no fruit. This is the principal assumed 
by " The American Society for colonizing the Free people of Color." 
This Society has always disavowed any design of intermeddling with 
slavery directly or of removing the slave without the consent of the 
master. Its direct object is "the removal of those who are already 
Free, or who may be hereafter emancipated." But its indirect, though 
certain and happy result will be the emancipation of the slave. This 
Society has been in existence about 12 years. It has auxiliaries in al- 
most every State in the Union: and I now invite your attention to a sum- 
mary of the benefits which may be expected to result from its opera- 
tions. 

1. A Christian Colony planted on its shores promises, by the bless- 
ing of Providence, to civilize and evangelize Africa. This Colony 
now in the 8th year of its history consists of about 1500 inhabitants. 
It has trebled the Colony of Virginia though fostered by Royal bounty, 
and has already effected more towards the overthrow of the Slave-trade 
than the combined Fleets of Great Britain and America. These can 
operate only at a distance and by force; it operates on the spot, and 
by moral suasion. The chiefs of the surrounding tribes send their sons 
to be educated in the Colony. One of them from an influential Tribe 
is now in this country under the care of the Colonist* who occupies 
the scat behind inc. The Colony also operates by what may be 
called commercial suasion. It is a place of deposit for those articles 
of European produce needed in the interior of Africa, which are com- 
monly bartered for slaves. These it furnishes for the products of 
\frica: consequently the motives the natives have for carrying on the 
<lave-Trade can no longer exist where the influence of the Colony 
is felt Already this infant settlement shelters a sea-coast of 200 miles 
which was before a principal mart for slaves. Meanwhile its cara- 
vans will carry the vet richer blessings of salvation: many will run to 
and fro: knowledge" will be increased; Africa will be civilized and gos- 
pelized: The Slave-Trade will be extinguished; God our Saviour will 
be glorified; and the human family benefitted. 

2 It proposes to ameliorate the condition of the people of Color 
W h0 are already Free. It maybe alleged, that this class of persons 
have the entire privileges of citizens. In this Commonwealth the co- 
lored man is not only entitled to vote, but is clegible to the very high- 
est post of honor and profit. In answer to this we ask in turn, waa 
ever a colored man actually deoied to any post of profit or honor. Ui 
i 8 such an event likely to occur even if thousands of them possessed 
"~lT<cv. John Lewis, now una visit *o this country 



9 

the requisite qualifications! Can they attain even to mediocrity of re- 
spectability and influence! We tarry not to ascertain why this 
distinction exists, or how far these feelings are consistent with moral 
and christian principle: we merely advert to the fact. Where any class 
of society find themselves excluded from an equality of intercourse 
and from participating in the honors and emoluments of society, their 
ruin is almost inevitable. Their strongest earthly stays to industry and 
uprightness of demeanour are removed. Our Sabbath Schools and 
infant schools and churches may do much to rescue thousands; But 
the mass will become idle and vicious in despite of every effort. The 
colored man is as susceptible of improvement as the white if he be 
placed under equally favorable influences. The remedy is, that he 
be removed from those moral disabilities he is now subject to. The 
Colonization Society has provided an asylum on the North-western 
coast of Africa where he may enjoy every advantage. The territory 
is ample and may be enlarged to almost any extent. The climate is 
perfectly congenial with the African constitution, and the soil in the 
highest degree fertile. The results surpass the expectations of the 
most sanguine. A City (Monrovia, so called in honor of the Ex-presi- 
dent) is laid out, and lots in eligible situations are already valued at 
3500. Two churches are erected, public buildings of various sorts: 
The children of the Colony are all day-scholars and most of them 
Sunday-scholars: Labor is high, commerce thrives at an almost unex- 
ampled rate. Many of the colonists are already wealthy, i. e. possess- 
ed of from 85000 to §10,000 each. The individual now present 
from the Colony assures me, that a more contented and happy com- 
munity is not to be found. The benefit which would result to us, by 
the removal from these unfavorable influences, of those who now 
immensely augment our pauper and criminal list, is a consideration 
of no little importance; But I omit it for the present as too selfish in 
its aspects to be ranged under the Head of Sympathy. The Society 
has provided the asylum and affords to emigrants every facility for 
reaching it; and had it no other claims to patronage, this we deem of 
no little importance. 

Finally, The Society will promote emancipation, and will effect as 
we believe finally, the extinction of Domestic Slavery. It will contract 
at first the edges and lighten the hue, and will wipe off at last the 
very vestiges of that broad black spot which yet defiles our national 
eschutcheon. Two obstacles to emancipation at present exist. The 
one is in the mind of the master, a conviction that his slave when 
emancipated in this country is not a gainer. The other obstacle is of a 
legal sort. The laws do not permit emancipation unless the person 
emancipated be removed. If the person liberated be removed to Africa 

3 



10 



and placed in circumstances the most favnmhl* *„ j • u , 
the mora, impeding and the "*I "''r^ ^ 
removed and the drain commences OffhTi ., m ° U " d is 

at .east one half were emancipated^ Zltrl V* '° Af ™ a 
but for this opening would have „, J "' I ' Ur P° se > wh ° 

hesitate not , say Sm Id 1 „> ' 'T" " * *Z ° f S,ara > We 
slaves so soon as 'the S ciety ts ftTn t? "* T'" 8 '° ' iberate their 
gentleman whose »,« rf ^ "" ^"'T' " ,em - A 
for his slaves and is now train L th m for -fT °t "*"?* S5 °' 000 
therefore we contemplate this &c e v ethert , ? "J* 8 ™ "*'" 
the Pe„p.e„f color already Free, or i Lion to n ^ ^ • A '? Ml to 
* merits our prayers anLur patronage Doraest «^very, 

^o doubt I trust now remains a? tn tift 7 • 
offering humanity in the XJj S oH 1 T °?r OTr 8jmpath ^ ° f 
Let our contributions i„ IT ' ° f bleedin « Af ™a in particular. 

of our persona, and JJ^^^S^ ^ *■**■<• 
object claiming our patronage ° *" lm P ortan ^ of the 

This is the anniversary of American Independence & a 
which was nlanted tho tv qo c t? j iUue P e «aence — the day on 

a more fertile ^ SSri"^^**' S" "t^ 

power, Great Britain ha, more commerce fi"t the *" m ° re 
Messing, religions, political, physical, has nlef en l^TV 
same is true of th s City TWim*.i.«., i „ e( l ualled - The 

of Heaven, and con.memorTtinlo , ih I* " ,e ^""S Unties 
nel of blessing, how i ""Tab ml ' " t ^ '^ ch "" 

^c*^^uirSf£r£^r 

more devereifiedin their Char'ctor A, ? * ° r ° f daims 

claims to patronage. T e C T on I "t T "f ™"* ^P™ it has 
Africa is the mn f * . V olon J at L,bena 0I > the western coast of 



it 

may soon be variegated with rivers and inland seas and Cities. To the 
friend of Freedom, a word. If this Colony be properly supported, the 
Slave-Trade will soon be known only as one of the abominations of 
other times, and the masters in our own land will say to their cap- 
tives "go forth." Lover of our country! slavery if not remedied will 
prove our ruin. Already a line broad and deep divides between the 
slave States and the Free. Animosities exist in almost every form; and 
widely separated as these sections of our country are in habits and 
interests we can hope for nothing better, until a righteous Providence 
for our crime of withholding from others what he has freely bestowed 
on us, shall sweep this promising empire with the besom of des- 
truction. 

My hearers! I do not address those whose sympathies are absorbed on 
objects of ideal distress, on tragic exhibitions: But I address persons 
who weep with those who really weep; and who by abstaining from 
the dissipations of the day have it in their power to aid the wretched. 

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